


you keep me from flying away

by jjakbbam



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: M/M, euiwoong's mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 18:22:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12114519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjakbbam/pseuds/jjakbbam
Summary: Daehwi finds Jinyoung to be the only reason why he's still grounded.In which Daehwi's a director and Jinyoung's a producer.





	you keep me from flying away

**Author's Note:**

> this in a jinhwi i posted already, but i deleted the work so here it is up again.  
> and i warn you, this is not beta read.

Since Daehwi was young, he always wondered what it would be like to fly and to, uh, you know, to go to outer space and see the sun up close though it would probably burn him and all that, but yeah. Lee Daehwi is a dreamer who wants to fly, knowing he can't ever sprout wings.

He's just hoping that someday gravity will betray the earth and that they'll all start floating in mid-air and- yes, he knows he's pretty strange. He hears that everyday from his friends. It's not his fault he wants to fly, though.

Or flying cars or teleportation devices get invented first and he somehow get transported off to an alternate universe where birds walk and people fly.

 

☆

 

Daehwi is a film and creative writing double major. Everyone, and that means  _everyone_ , knows how crazy and utopian-not-really all his ideas are, talking about ways the world would be so much better if blah blah blah. Most of the time, his ideas are about no gravity universes with living humans, flying cars and- well, you get the point.

He got into directing right after college, and his films aren't exactly the cheapest ever to produce. He goes for green screens and computer graphics and animations while most directors go for live people and acting. And he's also very stubborn, so yeah, those could be reasons why his producers are so sick of him.

But now, four years after his film debut, he's contacted by a friend who got contacted by another friend to meet up with this famous producer who never really does meetings, but decided to go because of said friend.

Daehwi's friend Euiwoong says that the producer has done a whole lot of low budget but high quality films, so he reasoned out that maybe it would be nice for Daehwi ' _to like, uh, lower the costs_ ' of his productions because they could all possibly go broke if they don't sell out in box offices and no one wants that. Euiwoong has a point, so Daehwi goes to the meeting, a cup of cold coffee in his right hand and his backpack in the other.

The producer's already running late by ten minutes, but Daehwi can wait; he has coffee. He knows the face of the producer based on a photo his friend has shown him; the man, Bae Jinyoung, has a small face, lightly tanned skin, round eyes, a sharp jawline, and well, what else can Daehwi say? He's quite handsome (less than that senior jock he used to have a crush on in sophomore college, but not bad.)

Another ten minutes later and the door to the near empty cafe bursts open, a man stumbles in, donning an overlarge sweater on his thin frame and his hair blown back and standing up on its own.

Daehwi quickly stands up from his chair, raising his hand as the man straightens and looks around.

"Bae Jinyoung-ssi!'

When Bae Jinyoung quickly spots him and jogs over to him, bowing continuously without looking him straight in the eye. "You are Lee Daehwi, yes? That director my friend's friend was talking about?"

His voice is very quiet, and Daehwi can immediately tell he's shy. Obviously.

"Yes, I'm Lee Daehwi." He smiles widely, holding out his hand for the other man to shake but eventually retrieving it in embarrassment when Bae Jinyoung just bows lower instead of shaking his head.

"I am Bae Jinyoung."

 

☆

 

Euiwoong's right. Bae Jinyoung's productions are indeed low budget, a complete opposite of what he's used to. Daehwi never listened to his producer; he just did whatever he wanted because for one, they're his funds anyway (yeah, he's his own sponsor) and all his films turned out fairly well but Jinyoung...

Ah. He's sort of intimidated by this guy and his silence.

Whenever Daehwi spouts out an idea, Jinyoung doesn't even speak full sentences when shooting them down; he literally just shakes his head and says  _one_  phrase. But Jinyoung is practical; he thinks well into the future after production and all that, and that's not so bad.

Now after around three hours of just throwing out ideas to have the other man shoot pretty much every single one down, Daehwi exhales a deep breath, reaching for his second cup of iced coffee. "So what would you suggest, Jinyoung?"

"How about we just keep things simple? Have a change of theme and stop using your science fiction for once, take something from real life and use that instead. We can still use your utopian concept, if that's what you like. You have a different producer now, have a different style, too."

Daehwi chokes on his coffee. He doesn't know if it's because Jinyoung actually has a point or if it's because that the longest thing he has said all evening. Or both.

By the end of the fourth hour, Daehwi decides that maybe Bae Jinyoung wouldn't be so bad to work with.

But he takes it back five minutes later because he thinks that they could fight while making this film; their ideas seem too contrasting. To be very frank, however, Daehwi doesn't think their personalities match very well and he doesn't want a fight during plot conceptualizing and finance marketing and the works. Of course he doesn't.

Instead, Daehwi simply asks Jinyoung out again by the next Saturday for another meeting that's not for work purposes. Daehwi's proposition causes the other boy to burst out laughing all of a sudden and  _nope_ , Daehwi is not gay for him and that absolutely gorgeous eyesmile.

 

☆

 

"You are whipped."

Woojin puts down the book he's holding and scratches the back of his head, peeking intently at Daehwi, who has his face buried in his hands and is very much regretting saying anything to Woojin. To Park Woojin, out of all people! This guy hates him enough to expose his and ' _his gay ass_ ' to his group of friends in his dance team.

Not to mention that Woojin was also the one who told Park Jihoon about Daehwi's old crush on him back in college.

"I am  _not_."

"You literally asked the boy out for no reason and when he asked why, you told him he's pretty. If that's not whipped, I don't know what is. The next thing you know, you're out on a date and you're leaning over to kiss him and that is absolutely disgusting to imagine and I hope he rejects you."

Daehwi shoots a glare at the older boy, picking up a pillow from behind him and aiming it at Woojin's head. Unfortunately, it's an easy dodge.

"Just because Hyungseob dumped you for that soon-to-be CEO guy doesn't mean you have to be so salty!"

He's kicked out of their shared apartment literally a minute later, and the next time Daehwi runs into Jinyoung, it's purely accidental and it's during Daehwi's early morning house-to-park-to-convenience-store-and-back runs at six in the morning. Turns out they live in just the same neighborhood.

The older boy is wearing a gray tracksuit and spotless white sneakers, his fringe is covering his eyes but he sweeps it away when he spots the younger, breaking into a wide grin that makes Daehwi feel weak in the knees.

"Hi, Jinyoung, fancy seeing you here!"

Jinyoung waves, "Morning."

They end up in the convenience store before Daehwi can even reach the park because Jinyoung just finished his run and Daehwi lies that he did, as well, and he's eating cup noodles side-by-side with Bae Jinyoung at half past six in the morning. He did not expect this.

And he was also not expecting Ahn Hyungseob (yes,  _that_ Hyungseob who broke up with Woojin) to come inside the store around an hour later and sit on the other side of him with a bottle of cold coffee from the freezer, greeting him cheerfully as if their last conversation was yesterday instead of two months ago.

Jinyoung slips off of the stool and waves goodbye at him, saying that he'll be going ahead first and tossing his empty noodle cup in the trash, when Hyungseob pops up out of nowhere and greets the both of them with his usual energy and bright smiles.

He'd like to ask Jinyoung to stay, but then decides again it; he doesn't want him to feel awkward or anything.

"Did I, uh, did I say something to make your friend leave?" Hyungseob asks, a sheepish smile on his face.

Daehwi shakes his head, laughing it off, "Jinyoung's just shy. How have you been these days, Hyungseob? I haven't seen you since you and Woojin broke up- Sorry, uh, wrong topic?"

When he returns to his and Woojin's apartment that afternoon to tell him the events of running into Jinyoung and meeting Hyungseob (especially about Hyungseob), even if Woojin looks like he's not interested and doesn't care anymore, Daehwi knows he does and tells him every single thing Hyungseob has confided in him that morning.

Woojin listens to every single detail that comes out of Daehwi's mouth while staring at his phone and pretending to be uninterested, but the redness of his ears say otherwise when he gets to the part that Hyungseob told Daehwi that he honestly still has a soft spot for Woojin and really misses him.

"Okay, I take back what I said the other day about hoping your crush rejects you."

Then he throws away the pillow on his lap for Daehwi to catch as he reaches for his phone, fumbling with it as he dials (probably) Hyungseob's number. Woojin looks very disappointed when he doesn't pick up and lets the call go to voicemail.

"Hyungseob, call me when you hear this, would you?"

The phone abruptly rings with a call around an hour later after Woojin continues to rant and talk to him about how much he misses his ex boyfriend. Woojin jumps and grabs his phone, running into the bathroom and locking the door behind him.

Laughing at his older friend's actions, Daehwi takes his leave once more, making sure that the door is properly closed this time. The last time he accidentally forgot to make sure the door was closed, a stray bird flew into their apartment for some weird reason and Woojin didn't talk to him for days.

Daehwi still doesn't understand why, it's not like it was  _Woojin's_ shirt that the bird ruined!

 

☆

 

"So, uh, you like doing slice-of-life?" Daehwi asks over an ice cream cone, Bae Jinyoung sitting right beside him on the edge of the wooden boardwalk, long legs swinging back and forth over the sea.

The other boy confirms, nodding while licking at his own half-finished cone. "And coming-of-age. Why do you like doing so much science fiction? I mean, since when?"

Jinyoung has started talking more around him; Daehwi likes to think his chatterbox and ' _sunshine_ ' self (coined by Hyungseob) has started to rub off on Jinyoung. He has an amazing smile that Daehwi likes to keep seeing.

"I don't know. I always just wanted to fly."

Jinyoung doesn't say anything for a while, just licking at his ice cream intently and popping the cone in his mouth to finish it off. When he swallows the waffle cone edge, he fixes his gaze on Daehwi, who is looking very focused on his cone.

"You're weird. You make pretty good films, but you're weird. Do you really not want to move out of your comfort zone for a while? Just this once? You just throw out the ideas, do whatever you want, but no flying cars and- Daehwi, don't look at me like that. Flying cars get boring after a while, you know."

The offended look on Daehwi's face makes Jinyoung laugh, swatting at his arm and nearly causing Daehwi to drop his ice cream in the sea for fishes to eat. "Hey!"

Now he's pouting and Jinyoung smiles widely, reaching over to pat his back. "Just try it with me, would you?"

Daehwi doesn't know where his next sentence comes from as he twists around to fully face his friend without falling off of the edge, "As long as you go out on one date with me."

Jinyoung looks shocked, his eyes widening more than usual. Did he just really–

"I'd love to." Jinyoung has a blank expression on his face before he breaks out in a wide grin, his ears brightly glowing red in the sun. "I, uh, I mean– Sure. Why not?"

Lee Daehwi drops his now melting ice cream cone in the sea for real this time. He'd say sorry to the fish, but he's too surprised to remember.

 

☆

 

Woojin called for an ' _intervention_ ' with the whole family on the nearest Friday night. Meaning, he called Donghyun and Youngmin out from their highly professional jobs just to help him with his love life. Does he even know what an intervention is?

Daehwi has better things to do, like plan his date and–

"How could he dump me and say he misses me!" Woojin wails loudly, punching the pillow in his lap over and over again as Donghyun looks on with a worried expression and Youngmin just looks amused, laying back beside Daehwi with his head propped up on a pile of pillows. "I know Hyungseob's stupid–not really– but that's not normal human behavior, is it? Answer me, Youngmin, you're a psychologist, you should know!"

Honestly. Daehwi would rather call Jinyoung and listen to him rave on and on about his life and his friends (because Jinyoung says Daehwi hearing about his interesting real life is could persuade him to make a film!)

"I should have never mentioned this to Woojin." He mutters under his breath to Youngmin, who bites back a laugh as Woojin goes wailing on about whatever to Donghyun, who is  _still_  listening intently because that's what Donghyun does, and Donghyun is pretty much one of the best friends a person can ever have.

Youngmin just laughs lightly, not too loud to catch Woojin's attention, pushing himself up from his comfortable position to barge inside the kitchen and to raid the fridge, coming back with four sealed bottles of beer and soda respectively.

"Hey, watch it!" Donghyun's eyes widen at the sight of Youngmin juggling eight bottles in his arms and Woojin frowns as the oldest boy sets them down.

"Drink up, kids, it's going to be a long night." Youngmin sits back down as Daehwi reaches for a soda, he's never liked beer anyway. He folds his hands in his lap, leaning slightly forward in Woojin's direction. "You were saying? Why exactly did your beloved boyfriend–"

A pillow is aimed at him and he swiftly dodges, a grin forming on his lips as he tilts his head and chuckles.

"I'm sorry, kid, your  _ex_  boyfriend–" Youngmin makes sure to emphasize the word 'ex' and Woojin groans loudly, burying his face in the pillow he was punching as his other hand flails behind him to grab at another to toss at Youngmin. "Fine. Why did  _Hyungseob_  break up with you exactly? Give me a reason."

"Woojin says Hyungseob never mentioned a reason–" Donghyun informs him and Daehwi jumps up, accidentally tipping over the sealed beer bottle.

"Okay, so Woojin just absolutely decided all on his own that Ahn Hyungseob, the softest boy slash bunny who was madly in love with him to ever walk this planet, decided to dump him for a richer guy." Daehwi says loudly, stomping his foot in frustration when Woojin buries his head even more in the pillow, "See! He just assumed that– You know what, I'm locking myself in Woojin's room! Goodnight!"

Daehwi's always had a dramatic side, and tonight is no exception. Woojin normally hates his drama and would murder him with his stares, also says Daehwi should have just gone for theatre instead of film, but maybe Woojin really is that miserable over Hyungseob because he hasn't even moved a single inch.

Damn.

Well, a man's got to be true to his word. Daehwi trudges over to Woojin's bedroom (because his is still at the end of the hallway), taking in the dull grey wallpaper and the minimal photos (which are polaroids of Woojin and Hyungseob, by the way) stuck on the wall above his desk, and locks the door.

He walks over to Woojin's desk, looking at his cluttered things and the photos. They're couple photos, some just selcas and others are more couple-y and romantic and Daehwi can see how obviously happy they both look with each other.

Woojin's grinning wide enough to the extent that his snaggletooth is showing and that rarely happens, his eyes are shining and Hyungseob, as cheesy as this may and will sound,  Hyungseob is glowing with happiness.

_Should_  he create something based on them?

 

☆

 

Bae Jinyoung's eyes are little crescent moons when he hears the first sentence slip from Daehwi's mouth. "How about we try doing that idea you wanted me to do?"

"A movie with living people, yes?"

When Daehwi nods, Jinyoung's suddenly so jumpy and happy and to be very frank, Daehwi's not exactly sure since when or how Jinyoung became so comfortable around him. From what Euiwoong said, he's not the friendly type immediately so he's wondering why.

"Why'd you suddenly change your mind, Hwi?" Jinyoung asks curiously and Daehwi shrugs, smiling awkwardly.

"I, uh, I saw my friend's Polaroid photos with his ex, and I thought, ' _okay, why not give it a shot_?'"

"Is your friend gay, too? Just like you?"

"Of course he is-  _Fuck_." Daehwi whips around to look at a grinning Bae Jinyoung. "Am I that obvious?"

Jinyoung laughs, "Hwi. You literally asked me out on a date. If that doesn't scream gay–" He abruptly stops and bursts out laughing even more when Daehwi raises a hand to stop him from continuing.

"I'm embarrassing."

"No judgment, I swear." Jinyoung promises, slinging his arm around Daehwi's neck to pull him into a headlock, "I don't care whether you're gay, bisexual, homophobic– no, you can't he homophobic– anyway, pansexual, have some kinks and fetishes or whatever. You're Lee Daehwi, that's all that matters."

It's probably that moments when Daehwi thinks he has completely fallen headfirst into a galaxy of Bae Jinyoung that he probably hasn't even stepped foot in yet, and he still doesn't want to admit he's totally whipped.

Not even when Jinyoung tells him he's pan. Nope, Daehwi's not totally whipped.

 

☆

 

Daehwi manages to whip up a full script within just a little over two months with the help of Jinyoung, and with Woojin wailing about his sad sad life to Youngmin in the other room approximately once a week for the first month they started writing.

"Your friend sounds very heartbroken." Jinyoung commented the first time he came over, skirting around the circle of two grown men sitting down on the living room floor to get inside Woojin's room where Daehwi was waving at him from the door.

Daehwi just snorted, "He's just stupid. He's too much of a coward to call his beloved ex boyfriend."

Jinyoung laughed, taking a long look at the room until his eyes fall on the photos stuck on the wall and he points at them, stepping closer to see the photos better.

"Is that them? They look good together."

It's then that Daehwi nodded and suddenly dragged him over to Woojin's bed where a lot of string and colored paper was cluttered on, showing him all the literal threads of ideas he had before Jinyoung asked for some paper. Daehwi went over to the door and literally screamed at the two men in the living room for some extra paper.

_"Shut up, Daehwi! Go look for fucking paper elsewhere!"_

_"Shush, Woojin- Here, Daehwi-"_

_"Thanks, Youngmin!"_

And Daehwi ran back inside the room, his lips threatening to burst into giggles and his hand holding a thick pad of paper. He tosses it at Jinyoung who's still sitting on the bed and sits himself down on the floor.

"Sorry you had to hear that. Woojin's really cranky, I'm thankful Youngmin is as nice as ever- I mean, that could be because he's a psychologist and he gets counseling for some shit every other weekend from another psychologist-"

"Daehwi, I think you're getting away from the point-"

"Ah, right, I'm sorry." Daehwi looked embarrassed as he gets on his knees and crawls over to the bed to take a look at his mess of loose threads and papers.

Well, Daehwi's always lost track of things pretty easily, but that doesn't make it any harder for him to touch solid ground anyway. Thankfully. Jinyoung's met directors whose scripts can go an entirely different direction from the original when they start talking.

For example, Yoo Seonho from his college years lost all ideas the moment food came in his mouth and his boyfriend Lai Kuanlin came into view. What was supposed to be a horror idea became a fairy tale with magical pizza slices and rainbow french fries.

Anyway, Yoo Seonho dropped out of college like a month before final exams of senior year and rumors came floating around he became a Broadway musical actor with his lovely, innocent Taiwanese boyfriend. Broadway was probably too much of an exaggeration, though, he's probably just that typical musical actor because Yoo Seonho is clumsy as hell and couldn't even pivot on the balls of his feet.

Moving on from Yoo Seonho and where he may be by now (he's getting away from the point as well), Daehwi wrote practically half of the first act of his first live action movie on his own over a weekend and Jinyoung could never be prouder of him.

Except when, of course, the full script was shoved in his face on a chilly Wednesday morning by a otter-patterned pajama pants and a bright yellow shirt wearing Daehwi with bird nest hair.

 

☆

 

"Can't we cast Woojin in our film-"

"No, Daehwi, we are not going to make Woojin and his ex get back together in a movie. We are not using their faces because who knows what Woojin could do to yours."

 

☆

 

Jinyoung handles mostly everything from the casting to the script editing and to the tiniest little details without any complaint that Daehwi is very useless at slice-of-life films, and Daehwi, of course, is very grateful.

"You're amazing, Jinyoung."

Jinyoung glances over at Daehwi with an awkward smile, rubbing the back of his neck with his pencil-free hand while they wait for the first auditionee to come in the room, "It's nothing, really. I could do this literally every day, Hwi. This is my job."

"But you're doing everything- Oh my god,  _oh my god_ , what do we do, someone's coming in, oh my god-"

The older boy hushes him with a light slap to his cheek, and Daehwi pouts, eyes wide because  _oh my god,_  what is he supposed to  _do_? Does he have to introduce himself or-

"Just sit there and tell me what you think, yeah? I'll handle all the talking with Justin-" Justin, Jinyoung's usual casting director, nods at him from Jinyoung's other side, giving Daehwi a cheery thumbs up. "So you don't have to worry about a thing. Relax."

Daehwi decides to trust Justin and Jinyoung because he really has no idea what he should do because he never had the problem of casting before. He just leans back in his chair, flipping through these auditioners' resumes and asking whatever comes to his mind.

"You're a dancer?" Is the first thing he blurts out to this guy named Ong Seongwoo, and the man nods, offering to show a few eights and suddenly starting to dance popping out of the blue with no music whatsoever.

Daehwi hums, the edges of his lips curling upwards. A dancer and an actor. Amazing. He makes a mental note to himself to remember this man.

There's a few other multi-talented people who auditioned, such as Son Chaeyoung who can draw terrifically, Myoui Mina who does ballet, Park Sungwoo whose face is very talented as well, and a lot others. Daehwi makes sure he remembers every single one of them.

It's two and a quarter hours into the auditions when Jinyoung suddenly stands up, his chair screeching at the suddenness.

"Yoo Seonho!"

"Bae Jinyoung!"

The person who has just come in with a partner screams, letting go of his partner's hand as he literally runs to engulf Jinyoung in a hug and lift him up from his feet. He has a weird way of hugging and the man, Seonho, is laughing when he lets go, ruffling his hair as his partner opens his arms to hug Jinyoung as well.

"It's been years, you two!" Jinyoung is grinning brightly as he claps the two boys on the back, "Last I heard was a rumor that you reached Broadway, but I highly doubted that-"

"You have no faith in me!"

"I don't either-"

"Oh, shut up, Kuanlin."

Later, Daehwi finds out that those two boys are Jinyoung's friends from college, and that Seonho and Kuanlin are dating and have been attached at the hip since forever. He and Justin are introduced to them both and the two boys are all toothy and gummy smiles and starry eyes.

He has to admit to himself that he's relieved that Seonho and Kuanlin are dating. Meaning, nothing can happen between them and Jinyoung.

God, does Lee Daehwi really hold that much adoration and love towards Bae Jinyoung?

 

☆

 

In the end, they cast Ong Seongwoo (because Daehwi can be  _very_ persuasive) and this very cheerful man named Kang Daniel as their main protagonists.

All three of them (Daehwi, Jinyoung and Justin) were very surprised to see that those two have already hit it off and started a friendship from the way Kang Daniel is slapping Seongwoo's shoulder while laughing by the time they called back all the auditioners to thank them for participating.

Seems like they cast the correct pair.

Kang Daniel is full of ' _thank you so much_ ' and ' _I won't let you down!_ ' promises when Justin contacts their lead actors to tell them that ' _yes! You have been casted_!' and Seongwoo is very happy, the happiness evident in his voice as he continues asking them ' _Are you guys serious?_ ' then thanks them continuously.

On the first script reading day with their two leads, Daehwi is glad to see that they're both laughing away at one of Seongwoo's jokes while they wait for Jinyoung to arrive. He also learns that Daniel's first name is Euigeon (which he thinks is a pretty cool and unique name, by the way, but Daniel denies it.)

Seongwoo and Daniel have the perfect chemistry and voice tones while reading out their lines, the only problem is that Daniel keeps laughing whenever Seongwoo is reading out a particular dramatic and angsty line.

They'll probably have to work more on Daniel and his nonstop giggling than his acting itself, honestly.

 

☆

 

When Daehwi gets home to their shared apartment late one Thursday night after yet  _another_ script reading, he's greeted with a Donghyun coaxing Woojin to ' _call him already, I'm sure he's not busy or asleep!_ ' and Youngmin lying on the floor with a pillow over his face.

Daehwi drops his things on the couch, grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen before sitting down a meter away from the pair, poking Youngmin's stomach until he wakes up. Youngmin's sitting up a minute later, his hair standing up at different angles and his eyes half closed.

"What's happening now? Oh- hi, Daehwi, did you just get here?"

"Youngmin!" Donghyun sighs, exasperated as he points at Woojin and pouts at Youngmin, "He hasn't contacted Hyungseob yet! He's too stubborn!"

"Oh, give it here!" Daehwi rolls his eyes and swiftly snatches Woojin's phone from where it's hanging loosely from the edge of his fingers and Hyungseob's number is on the contact screen. All it literally needs is one tap and the call would be going in, why wouldn't they just tap the screen for him?

A second later, Park Woojin's phone is officially calling Ahn Hyungseob's.

It takes eight rings before Hyungseob picks up and by that time, Donghyun and Youngmin are staring anxiously at Woojin's phone screen. Woojin himself is as pale as a sheet and Daehwi just snorts when the first sound of Hyungseob's soft voice can be heard in their apartment.

He sounds careful, and wary. And confused. Mainly confused. "Hello?"

Donghyun immediately slaps Youngmin's leg, causing him to hiss loudly and pull it to his chest as Daehwi pokes Woojin's side. Woojin yelps, "Hyungseob!"

All the color has drained out of Woojin's face and Daehwi can tell that he's planning to literally make a break for it from the way his eyes flit around nervously, and he aims a slap to the back of his head.

"Hey, Seob! Woojin needs to tell you something!"

"Daehwi! Hi-"

"Goodnight, talk to this blundering idiot, yeah? He's been meaning to contact you for  _centuries_."

Then Daehwi runs, grabbing his phone from the pocket of his bag and locking himself inside his room but keeping his ear pressed to the door to make sure Woojin talks as he texts and starts up with a conversation with Jinyoung.

But then text messaging becomes a call, and when he hears Jinyoung's voice, he completely forgets all about Woojin and Hyungseob. Jinyoung's more important than they are anyway.

 

☆

 

Bae Jinyoung's four in the morning thoughts consist of Yoo Seonho and his food, Lee Daehwi and his gorgeous smile and the fact that maybe, just maybe, he could be falling for his director friend if he hadn't yet.

Four in the morning thoughts aren't supposed to last so long, though, but his go on until half past five in the morning, when he suddenly remembers that he still has a meeting to go to with Daehwi to personally go look for places they can film at and he decides to go to sleep and fuck his alarm clock.

He'd rather look fresh and be late than look tired as hell and be early. He can always say he's fashionably late, yes?

However, Jinyoung wakes up the next morning with two hours of sleep because Daehwi's calling him and screaming into the phone about how ' _Woojin's wailing again because he fucked up a call with his ex! Again!'_. How can he not listen?

At one in the afternoon, when Jinyoung picks Daehwi up in his car, Daehwi is pouting and looking very annoyed as he slams the door behind him and trudges down the steps to get in the shotgun seat right beside Jinyoung.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Woojin's an asshole." Daehwi says flatly, crossing his arms over his chest, then adds after a quick thought. "Actually, he's not. He's just really really really stupid, I hope he gets hit with a truck-"

"Ssh," Jinyoung shushes Daehwi before any more curses fly out of his mouth and curses everybody in the world. "A baseball bat would be better, you just want to knock some sense in the guy, not bloodily murder him."

"Can you run over him with your car for me just once–"

"Daehwi!"

"Aw, come on! Or could you at least hit him once with your side mirror? I'll pay for the fixing charges, I swear–"

"No, Daehwi, we are not killing or injuring Park Woojin." Jinyoung sighs, glancing him over at him, "Now get your seatbelt on, where do we go first?"

 

☆

 

It's around that same time next year when their movie comes out, Daehwi doesn't know why he's so nervous on premiere night when he's done this before (and those times, he didn't have Jinyoung beside him so shouldn't he be calmer now instead of the other way around?)

Seongwoo and Daniel are gripping each other's hands in front of them. It's both their debut movie and Daehwi can understand how nervous they must be feeling. He felt the same way during the first release of his debut movie. He was slapping Woojin's thighs out of his nerves.

Now, he's holding Jinyoung's hand and his breath is caught up in his throat as the lights dim, the opening scenes of the movie rolls in and he can see Daniel burying his face in Seongwoo's shoulder the split second his face appears onscreen. He's probably burst in tears, bless Daniel and his soft heart.

Jisoo, who acts as Daniel's best friend in the film, is sitting beside Daehwi and when he just glances at her, he's shocked to see her crying as well. She didn't even cry when filming ended and everyone else (Daehwi included) went all emotional.

Daehwi silently passes her his handkerchief and she immediately takes it, whispering a word of thanks.

The theater isn't necessarily packed to the brim, but there's a larger amount of viewers than Daehwi is used to and he's pretty sure it's because of Jinyoung and the name he has made for himself as a producer of numerous coming of age films.

The one they made together, titled 'The Universe is not Yours' has scientific touches to it, revolving around a boy named Joo Jinwoon's fascination with celestial bodies (Daniel) and the boy next door Kim Seunghoon's suicidal tendencies (Seongwoo).

Daehwi thinks it was crap when he first finished the script, but after a little bit of tweaking and with Jinyoung's help, it actually became half decent. The decency of the whole film as a whole, though? He owes it all to his amazing actors and actresses. He swears they'd all hit it big soon enough, they all have too much potential to not be huge stars. Daehwi's actually wondering how all these talented people came to find him instead of anybody else, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

Okay, that's cheesy–

Jinyoung squeezes his hand gently, jolting him back to reality and dragging him back down to earth, and leans over, whispering in his ear, "You did it, Hwi. First film out of your usual comfort zone."

A wide smile forms on Daehwi's lips, "It's all because of you, you know. Couldn't have done it without you, honestly." The older boy lets out a soft chuckle, suddenly lifting Daehwi's hand and lightly pressing his lips to the back of it before slowly letting go and folding his hands in his lap.

"Let's just watch, yeah? Enjoy our masterpiece."

 

☆

 

Daehwi feels like he's going to cry when the closing credits start and end, and it's really so  _so_  weird because he never felt like this before even when his debut movie ended. Jisoo, Daniel and Seongwoo are all in a group hug and Daehwi feels so soft, then Jinyoung suddenly pulls him close.

"I'm really proud of that movie. I never imagined it could look so amazing on the big screen."

It's an emotional moment, so of course,  _someone_  has to break it. In this case, it's Woojin, Hyungseob, Youngmin and Donghyun barreling towards the both of them and literally breaking them apart while screaming that " _it was a fantastic movie_!", that they're " _literal geniuses, the pair of them_!" and the highly expected " _how_ dare _you run over Seunghoon with a train_?"

While Daehwi retorts to Woojin's angry question about killing a main character, "I thought of you while writing that part," which earns a loud, unflattering snort from Hyungseob, Youngmin and Donghyun are busy chattering up Jinyoung about the plot, the cinematography and Daniel and Seongwoo's acting– " _Especially the acting_!"

"Woojin and Hyungseob are finally together now?" Jinyoung suddenly blurts out when he sees Woojin bashfully peck Hyungseob's cheek at one point of their conversation and they're pretty much the only ones left inside the theater.

Daehwi coughs, "Bae Jinyoung, those idiots have been going on and off for the past eight months."

Youngmin nods solemnly, "It's been highly frustrating, we hope the cycle breaks and Woojin stops being so petty and jealous over the tiniest things."

"Well, if Hyungseob would just  _stop_  hanging out with–"

"And so it repeats, bet you ten dollars they'll break up by the end of the ni–" Daehwi sighs deeply.

Donghyun jabs his elbow into his side as Hyungseob grabs Woojin's collar and plants a kiss square on the mouth. "Shut up, Woojin. No one gives Daehwi ten bucks, we are  _not_  breaking up for the  _twelfth_  time, I am not allowing it anymore–"

At this point, Jinyoung just has his mouth open and his eyes wide as he stares at them. Daehwi reaches over and pushes Jinyoung's mouth closed for him, tossing his arm around his shoulder and jerking his head in the direction of the door.

"Let's go before someone kicks us out."

Woojin is the one who pretentiously coughs into his fist this time, "We kept mentioning that like five minutes ago, you were the one who didn't want to leave."

Daehwi presses his mouth into a line, puffing out his cheeks and turning to Hyungseob, "Watch your boyfriend, you don't want him to be a Kim Seunghoon with Jinyoung's car instead of a train, do you?"

"Hwi, you can't even drive straight–" Jinyoung sighs. Daehwi snaps to look at him, tilting his head to the side and smiling innocently.

"Exactly."

 

☆

 

Daehwi decides that he needs Jinyoung to strap him down to earth before he does something crazy that could potentially destroy the world (or Woojin, for that matter.)

It's past midnight after the release of their film and their mini-party where Daehwi and Jinyoung offered to treat the entire cast to meat. Now, they're sitting on a deserted park bench, side by side and keeping their silence. Jinyoung's staring up at the moon and Daehwi thinks that he is so gorgeous and  _fine_ , he will admit that he's whipped for Bae Jinyoung.

"Seonho and Kuanlin are pretty much fated for each other, did you know?" Jinyoung suddenly speaks up, glancing at him, then he laughs, "Okay, you didn't. I forgot you don't know them that well. They've been friends for a really long time now." 

And Jinyoung breaks into a long story about how Seonho and Kuanlin came to be that perfect pair they are now, that they've had a lot of curves and twists in their road before, but they still ended up together.

"It's amazing how that happened for them." Daehwi comments, his voice soft and his head nodding.

Jinyoung hums lowly and Daehwi recognizes it as that girl group Pristin's song,  _Wee Woo_  is the title, he's not sure. "I'd like that to happen to me, too, but no one really stayed in my life from primary, I guess." He's chuckling awkwardly now and Daehwi leans over to look at his face.

"I would stay in your life if you stay in mine."

Daehwi pretends he doesn't see the way Jinyoung's cheeks color, and he pretends his entire face isn't burning as well. He clears his throat, "Well, you see, if you weren't around, I'd probably have murdered Woojin already and Hyungseob would have killed me for killing his precious boyfriend-"

"So you need me to keep you out of jail, is that it?" Jinyoung's tone is teasing and he laughs loudly, the sound of his laughter tinkling in Daehwi's ears. "I'll keep you on a leash if that's what you want, Hwi, I mean, nothing kinky and all, just-"

"Jinyoung!"

The older boy laughs harder, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye and promising to stay by Daehwi's side to keep him from fatally injuring anyone as long as Daehwi does the same. They interlock pinkies, and Daehwi suddenly opens up a new subject about how the ratings for the movie could possibly be.

Their topics go from possible movie ratings to whether or not Seongwoo and Daniel are actually gay for each other to Woojin and Hyungseob to Seonho's magical burgers and to the edge of the universe. Literally.

It's three in the morning when Daehwi's phone rings and he sets the call on speaker to Woojin screaming at him that ' _you little shit! I'm locking you out of the house!_ ' and Hyungseob laughing like a lunatic in the background as he shouts a quick apology to Daehwi before the call drops.

"Is that normal?" Jinyoung asks, his hand covering his mouth as he tries not to laugh. Daehwi shrugs.

"Every time I stay out this late, honestly. Can I crash at your place?"

Jinyoung nods, telling him that he's always welcome to come over; Daehwi grins widely, grabbing Jinyoung's hand and pulling him to stand up while hooking his arm through the other's.

"Daehwi-"

Nope, he's not letting go.

 


End file.
